WSU uses the most current edition (4th) of the CDC/NIH BioSafety
in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories (BMBL) guidelines for
determining facility requirements, lab practices and equipment
needed for BioSafety Level 2 and 3 facilities. To operate a BSL
2 or 3 facility at WSU, a biosafety manual shall be developed
that is specific to your area and submitted to Environmental Health
and Safety for review. The guidelines are available at http://www.cdc.gov/od/ohs/biosfty/bmbl5/bmbl5toc.htm.
NIH guidelines on the use of recombinant DNA can be found at: http://bmbl.od.nih.gov/contents.htm.
The biosafety level of a research protocol must be determined before the project can be approved by the WSU Institutional Biosafety Committee. The following resources can help in making this determination:
- The CDC BMBL,
- NIH guidelines,
- Suppliers recommendations on the biosafety level designations of the agent
in question,
- The ABSA web site Risk Group Classification for Infectious Agents.
Please complete the BioSafety
Manual Template to draft your manual. Fill in the areas which
relate to specific biohazards such as equipment, and standard operating procedures (SOPs)
to manage the risks, personal protective equipment (PPE), etc.
University policies and procedures for managing biohazardous waste, sharps
and glass disposal can be accessed at SPPM S80.12, S80.13 and S80.14.
These protocols should also be addressed in your biosafety manual. Generic
precautions and procedures can be copied directly from these sources.
A description of the hazardous agents involved
in your research and the precautions taken to protect lab workers
shall be included in the biosafety manual. This includes procedures for managing the particular hazards present
in your lab. Biohazardous waste must be disposed of per WSU SPPM S80.12. WSU Biohazard Waste Treatment and Disposal Guidelines will provide further instructions on disposal methods for various types of biohazardous waste.
Lab Safety requirements, including chemical safety, can be accessed
at the Environmental Health and Safety Lab
Safety web site.
A walk
through inspection will be performed to ensure that BSL-2 and 3 labs meet recognized guidelines. The checklists for these inspections are available at BSL-2 inspection checklist and BSL-3 inspection checklist to help you prepare
for an inspection.
Contact the Office of Grants
and Research Development for procedures on approval of research
by the University’s Institutional BioSafety Committee.
